BREAKING: Student health insurance plan put on hold
Students walk on the Quad, located on DePaul’s Lincoln Park campus.
An option for students to receive health insurance through the university will now be delayed, according to new information obtained by The DePaulia. Last fall, sources said it was likely that a health insurance plan would be offered to students by the 2023-2024 academic year.
The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee, which started as the DePaul Student Health Insurance Task Force, began the process of finalizing a healthcare plan on track to be offered to students in fall 2023.
Associate Vice President of Student Affairs, Kimberlie Goldsberry told The DePaulia this plan has now been slowed.
“Although it was originally hoped that the health insurance requirement and subsequent plan might be launched in the fall of 2023, several complex questions still need to be addressed,” Goldsberry said. “Therefore, the timeline for implementation has been delayed.”
While most 4-year institutions provide students with a university-sponsored insurance plan, DePaul has not offered its students a plan since 2014.
Goldsberry said the committee reviewed proposals from insurance providers but continues to gather more information before implementing a healthcare plan.
The DePaulia has not received confirmation on when the health insurance plan will be offered to students after recent delays.
When a plan is approved, Goldsberry said a student health insurance requirement will not directly increase a student’s tuition.
“If the requirement moves forward at DePaul, students will receive a premium charge for a student health insurance plan which could be waived if they have sufficient, active health care,” Goldsberry said.
The committee has already identified a plan, according to Goldsberry.
“The Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee has fulfilled its original charge of identifying a plan and sharing information with the President’s Cabinet,” she said.
In December, DePaul’s Joint Council shared a census update indicating lower enrollment than anticipated, resulting in the university operating at a deficit for the fiscal year. To combat this deficit, the university has instituted several strategies to ease budgetary strain.
It is unclear whether the health insurance plan’s delay is related to DePaul’s low enrollment and cost-saving measures.
However, Goldsberry said questions still need to be answered before the committee can move forward with the health insurance plan.
“Members of the committee will likely be among those involved in collecting information related to questions that need to be answered by fall 2023 before a final decision is made,” Goldsberry said.
Anon Grad Student • Jan 28, 2023 at 6:09 pm
I think it should also be noted that DePaul abandoned the plan last minute, when many doctoral graduate students were relying on health insurance being implemented next year. Many of us have put off medical care that we desperately need yet can’t afford. We currently don’t make a livable wage for Chicago, have no health insurance, and are essentially part time workers for the university in top of being full time students and researchers.
Additionally, DePaul administrators had no plan to look into the need to provide health insurance for its graduate and undergraduate students. DePaul claims to have Vincentian values, but this is rarely reflected in their priorities and actions. The dire need for health insurance was a problem DePaul seemed to not care about until a group of graduate students conducted a needs assessment on their own time, unpaid.
This is a much larger issue than this article lets on to.
Samantha Moilanen • Jan 29, 2023 at 11:30 am
We appreciate your insight. If you would like to share more off-the-record, please reach out to me at the email on my staff profile page. I am the assistant news editor for The DePaulia.